Bad Boys 5
Bad Boys 5
Signed Print
Keith Haring
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51 x 66cm, Edition of 30, Screenprint
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Meaning & Analysis
This signed screen print from 1986 is a limited edition of 30 from Keith Haring’s Bad Boys series. Rendered with free flowing black lines against a white backdrop, Bad Boys 5 is a striking image that catches the viewer’s attention in both form and subject matter.
Haring’s Bad Boys series is one of the few works that stipulates the gender of the figures in each print. This is an explicit celebration of Haring’s own sexuality, and the artist’s energetic, frenzy of bold lines used to depict the figure in Bad Boys 5 is a testament to this. Moreover, this print is distinguishable in that Haring depicts the figure with a face, unusual when considered alongside his early figurative work.
The sexually explicit subject matter of Haring’s Bad Boys series is indicative of a turning point in the artist’s career, when the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit the LGBT+ community in 1980s New York. As an openly gay artist and activist in the LGBT rights movement, Haring used his work to fight against homophobia and advocate for safe sex, awareness and research around HIV and AIDS.